An ordained elder in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference of the United Methodist Church, Deborah served as a pastor and worked with the United Methodist Publishing House prior to arriving at Moravian Theological Seminary where she is the Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible. She received her Ph.D at Vanderbilt University where her academic interests center on the intersection of religion, gender, and sexuality in the Hebrew Bible and how these texts and their interpretations impact faith communities in both positive and negative ways. Her passionate interest in global interpretations of the Bible drove her recent sabbatical spent teaching at Teofilo Kisanji University in Mbeya, Tanzania and her many trips to Israel where she continues to participate in archaeological excavations with her students and community.